Week 39, Day 1 in the NASB

Sep 23, 2019

Habakkuk 1

The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

How long, O Lord, will I call for help,And You will not hear?I cry out to You, "Violence!"Yet You do not save.Why do You make me see iniquity,And cause me to look on wickedness?Yes, destruction and violence are before me;Strife exists and contention arises.Therefore the law is ignoredAnd justice is never upheld.For the wicked surround the righteous;Therefore justice comes out perverted.

"Look among the nations! Observe!Be astonished! Wonder!Because I am doing something in your days—You would not believe if you were told."For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,That fierce and impetuous peopleWho march throughout the earthTo seize dwelling places which are not theirs."They are dreaded and feared;Their justice and authority originate with themselves."Their horses are swifter than leopardsAnd keener than wolves in the evening.Their horsemen come galloping,Their horsemen come from afar;They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour."All of them come for violence.Their horde of faces moves forward.They collect captives like sand."They mock at kingsAnd rulers are a laughing matter to them.They laugh at every fortressAnd heap up rubble to capture it."Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on.But they will be held guilty,They whose strength is their god."

Are You not from everlasting,O Lord, my God, my Holy One?We will not die.You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge;And You, O Rock, have established them to correct.Your eyes are too pure to approve evil,And You can not look on wickedness with favor.Why do You look with favorOn those who deal treacherously?Why are You silent when the wicked swallow upThose more righteous than they?Why have You made men like the fish of the sea,Like creeping things without a ruler over them?The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook,Drag them away with their net,And gather them together in their fishing net.Therefore they rejoice and are glad.Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their netAnd burn incense to their fishing net;Because through these things their catch is large,And their food is plentiful.Will they therefore empty their netAnd continually slay nations without sparing?

Habakkuk 2

I will stand on my guard postAnd station myself on the rampart;And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me,And how I may reply when I am reproved.Then the Lord answered me and said,"Record the visionAnd inscribe it on tablets,That the one who reads it may run."For the vision is yet for the appointed time;It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.Though it tarries, wait for it;For it will certainly come, it will not delay.

"Behold, as for the proud one,His soul is not right within him;But the righteous will live by his faith."Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man,So that he does not stay at home.He enlarges his appetite like Sheol,And he is like death, never satisfied.He also gathers to himself all nationsAnd collects to himself all peoples.

"Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him,Even mockery and insinuations against himAnd say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his—For how long—And makes himself rich with loans?’"Will not your creditors rise up suddenly,And those who collect from you awaken?Indeed, you will become plunder for them."Because you have looted many nations,All the remainder of the peoples will loot you—Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land,To the town and all its inhabitants.

"Woe to him who gets evil gain for his houseTo put his nest on high,To be delivered from the hand of calamity!"You have devised a shameful thing for your houseBy cutting off many peoples;So you are sinning against yourself."Surely the stone will cry out from the wall,And the rafter will answer it from the framework.

"Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshedAnd founds a town with violence!"Is it not indeed from the Lord of hostsThat peoples toil for fire,And nations grow weary for nothing?"For the earth will be filledWith the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,As the waters cover the sea.

"Woe to you who make your neighbors drink,Who mix in your venom even to make them drunkSo as to look on their nakedness!"You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor.Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness.The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you,And utter disgrace will come upon your glory."For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,And the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them,Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land,To the town and all its inhabitants.

"What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it,Or an image, a teacher of falsehood?For its maker trusts in his own handiworkWhen he fashions speechless idols."Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, ‘Awake!’To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’And that is your teacher?Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,And there is no breath at all inside it."But the Lord is in His holy temple.Let all the earth be silent before Him."

Habakkuk 3

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.

Lord, I have heard the report about You and I fear.O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years,In the midst of the years make it known;In wrath remember mercy.

God comes from Teman,And the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.His splendor covers the heavens,And the earth is full of His praise.His radiance is like the sunlight;He has rays flashing from His hand,And there is the hiding of His power.Before Him goes pestilence,And plague comes after Him.He stood and surveyed the earth;He looked and startled the nations.Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered,The ancient hills collapsed.His ways are everlasting.I saw the tents of Cushan under distress,The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling.

Did the Lord rage against the rivers,Or was Your anger against the rivers,Or was Your wrath against the sea,That You rode on Your horses,On Your chariots of salvation?Your bow was made bare,The rods of chastisement were sworn. Selah.You cleaved the earth with rivers.The mountains saw You and quaked;The downpour of waters swept by.The deep uttered forth its voice,It lifted high its hands.Sun and moon stood in their places;They went away at the light of Your arrows,At the radiance of Your gleaming spear.In indignation You marched through the earth;In anger You trampled the nations.You went forth for the salvation of Your people,For the salvation of Your anointed.You struck the head of the house of the evilTo lay him open from thigh to neck. Selah.You pierced with his own spearsThe head of his throngs.They stormed in to scatter us;Their exultation was like thoseWho devour the oppressed in secret.You trampled on the sea with Your horses,On the surge of many waters.

I heard and my inward parts trembled,At the sound my lips quivered.Decay enters my bones,And in my place I tremble.Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress,For the people to arise who will invade us.Though the fig tree should not blossomAnd there be no fruit on the vines,Though the yield of the olive should failAnd the fields produce no food,Though the flock should be cut off from the foldAnd there be no cattle in the stalls,Yet I will exult in the Lord,I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.The Lord God is my strength,And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,And makes me walk on my high places.

For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.

2 Corinthians 7

Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Make room for us in your hearts; we wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we took advantage of no one.I do not speak to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together.Great is my confidence in you; great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction.

For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within.But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus;and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more.For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it—for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while—I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the offender nor for the sake of the one offended, but that your earnestness on our behalf might be made known to you in the sight of God.For this reason we have been comforted.

And besides our comfort, we rejoiced even much more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.For if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I was not put to shame; but as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also our boasting before Titus proved to be the truth.His affection abounds all the more toward you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.I rejoice that in everything I have confidence in you.